Today's
Stories
October 27
/ 29, 2006
Maher Arar
The
Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: a Personal Account
October 26,
2006
Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Islamic
Fascism?: Inflammatory Ironies
Carlos Zorrilla
The
Police Raid on My House: Trumped Up Charges and Collusion Between
a Mining Company and the Government of Ecuador
Paul Craig Roberts
The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government: If Enron's
Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney
Get?
Mike Whitney
The Charnel House of Baghdad
Lily Hughes
A Cruel and Unusual Reality: Inside the Texas Death House
Jennifer Matsui
Madonna's African Safari: The Great White Baby Hunter
Tim Matson
How to Save Vermont
Stephen Fleischman
Like a Soldier: Benchmarks, Timelines and Lies
Missy Beattie
The Blood of October: Are We Sure Barney Still Supports This
War?
Patrick Cockburn
From
"Mission Accomplished" to "Mission Impossible"
in Iraq
Website of the Day
Open Letter to The Nation
October 25,
2006
Michael Donnelly
Ethnicity
and Baseball
John Stanton
The
Vindication of Sibel Edmonds
John Ross
Upheaval from the Bottom
Conn Hallinan
Hunting Hugo: When It's About Oil Nothing is Off the Table--Not
Even Assassination
Robert Jensen
Academic
Freedom on the Rocks
Johnny Barber
Drinking Tea with Hizbullah
Bruce K. Gagnon
Space Cowboy: Bush's War on Heaven
Daniel McGowan
Elie Wiesel for Israeli President?
James J. Brittain
Uribe's Failure to Learn from Colombia's Past
Peter Harley
Afghanistan in 3-D
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Minister of Strategic Threats
Shepherd Bliss
The Bioneers and the New York Times
Website of
the Day
The Price of Staying the Course
October 24,
2006
John Walsh
The
Book of Rahm: Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats
M. Shahid Alam
Not All Terrorists Are Muslim: the Latest Falsehood from the
Advocates of Civilizational War
Dr. Trudy Bond
The Silence at Home, as America Eats Her Young
Michael Phillips
The Story of My Kidnapping in Nablus: "I Never Feared for
My Life"
Dave Lindorff
Truth and Consequences on Iraq: Bush's Latest Cut-and-Paste War
Plan
David Phinney
A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Labor Trafficking Used
to Build World's Largest Embassy
Laura Carlsen
Food Insecurity: the World Needs Its Small Farmers
Pierre Tristam
The American Way of Gore
Marguerite
Rose Jimenez
"About
That Trip to Cuba:" When the FBI Came Calling
Website of
the Day
Tampon Terrorists
October 23,
2006
Saree Makdisi
Israel's
Cluster Bomb War: "What We Did Was Insane and Monstrous"
Joshua Frank
The
Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: an Interview with
Cindy Sheehan
Fred Gardner
What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis?
Ralph Nader
The End of Habeas Corpus and the Belligerent Despot-in-Chief
Ron Jacobs
Bush's Clark Clifford: James Baker Wants a Kinder, Gentler War
Norman Solomon
Punditry Without Consequences: Channeling Thomas Friedman
Richard Manning
Outside the Market: We Need and Owe Rural People
Neil Kitson
Canadians in Afghanistan: Bloody, Unbowed, Stoned?
William MacDougall
The Socialist, the Columnist, His Wife and the Prostitute
Gilad Atzmon
Surviving the Board of Deputies
Werther
The
Evening of Empire
Website of
the Day
Different Drummer: Internet Coffeehouse Movement
October 20
/ 22, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
The
Myth of Microloans
Gary Leupp
How
the US Declared War on North Korea
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
Dave Zirin
Pat Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence
William Blum
Don't Look Back: Who Said Clinton Didn't Kill Anybody?
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Cronies' War
Winslow Wheeler
The
Mad Logic of Pentagon Spending: As Costs Rise, Readiness Declines
Michael Donnelly
GOP Death Slide: Is the Party Really Over?
Fred Gardner
Corporate Drugs Useless Against Alzheimer's
Susie Day
How
to Stay Out of Gitmo
Lucinda Marshall
Behind Closed Doors: the Invisibility of Domestic Violence
Fred Wilcox
The Second Palestinian Intifada: History of a Struggle for Survival
Alan Maass
Standing Up Against Racism at Columbia: a Wake Up Call to the
Passive Left
Lee Sustar
A Bipartisan Border Wall: New Phases in the Crackdown on Immigrants
Ariadna Theokopoulos
Shame on You, Dr. Warf: Hail the Epidemiologist in Chief
Missy Beattie
Surges: the Dow and the Death Count
CP News Wire
Bush's Paraguay Land Grab: Hideout or Water Raid?
CP News Services
Sexually Repressed Republicans: Robert Bork, Riveted
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Scenes from Oaxaca
October 19,
2006
Elaine Cassel
The
Bush Administration's Assault on Defense Lawyers
Col. Dan Smith
Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine: Cracks in the Bush / Blair
Axis
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
North Korea's Nuclear Test: a Q & A
Josh Gryniewicz
Wal-Mart Tightens the Squeeze on Workers
Amira Hass
What is 20 Tons of Explosives?
Eric Holt-Gimenez
Poison and Famine in the Fields: How the Agri-Food Industry's
Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration
Jesse Hagopian
Arrested Democracy: On Trying to Ignore Aaron Dixon
Sam Husseini
How Third Parties Can Solve the "Spoiler" Problem and
Win Elections
John Weisheit
A
Gathering of Water Buffaloes: Feds Celebrate Death of the Colorado
River
CP News Service
A Plea to U2 From Africa's Children: Stop Bono Before He Kills
Again
Website of
the Day
George W. Bush: Hollywood Producer
Art Gallery
of the Day
Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings in Manhattan
October 18,
2006
Joshua Frank
Cindy
Sheehan's Lesser Evilism: Democrats or Bust?
Dr. Curran
Warf, MD
Slandering Sound Science: Bush's Attack on the Lancet Iraq War
Death Study
Saul Landau
Bush's
Foley: Will the Dems Blow It?
Tom Barry
The
Politics of Fear
Bruce Jackson
Thundersnow: a Report from Buffalo
Dave Lindorff
Loveless Among the Ruins: Even Repubs Flee Bush's Failed Middle
East Policy
Frederico Fuentes
When Cochabamba Said "Enough": Bolivia's Blow to Neoliberalism
Michael Simmons
Greetings from Echo Park: an Open Letter to Rolling Stone's Jann
Wenner
Daryll E. Ray
The Root Problems in American Agriculture
Kate Doyle
The Dead of Tlatelolco
Website of
the Day
The
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
October 17, 2006
Michael Neumann
Hit
and Run: Guerrilla Reviewing
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Nuclear
Test, Political Flare: Interpreting the Physics and Politics
of N. Korea's Nuclear Test
Stephen S.
Pearcy
The Interrogation of Julia Wilson: Secret Service Grills 14 Year-Old
Artist
Sharon Smith
Afghanistan
Reconsidered: The Taliban Aren't Gone, Women Haven't Been Liberated
Al Krebs
The Corporate Assault on Zoning
David Underhill
Politicus Interruptus: Come Back, Jo Bonner
Daniel Wolff
NY's Iraq Veterans Against the War Needs Your Help ... Now
James Brooks
Desirable
Duds: Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon
Website of the Day
Stop Torture Now
October 16,
2006
Gary Leupp
North
Korea as a Religious State
Patrick Cockburn
General
Mutinies Against Blair
David Wilson
Where Have All the Doctors Gone?: the Collapse of Iraq's Health
Care Services
Robert Fisk
Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide
Robert Jensen
Racism and Cheap Thrills at U. of Texas Law School
Ingmar Lee
/ Krista Roessingh
An Appeal for S. India's Wild Elephants
Mike Whitney
America's Other War Party
Jake Whitney
The Courageous Dr. Rost
Sanho Tree
Sugar Daddy Politics: Was Foley Blackmailed to Secure His Vote
on CAFTA?
Website of
the Day
Best
War Ever
October 14/15, 2006
Weekend Edition
Uri Avnery
Gaza
as Laboratory: the Great Experiment
John Walsh
How
Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress
Jean Bricmont
A Fable About Palestine
Jennifer Van Bergen
Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America
Ralph Nader
Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball
Floyd Rudmin
The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted
N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons
Mark Weisbrot
Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations
Laura Carlsen
Building a Future in the Mixteca
Hani Shukrallah
A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit
Dr. Susan Block
The Spent Milk of Human Foley
John Chuckman
North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US
Lucinda Marshall
Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration
Don Monkerud
The Case Against Depleted Uranium
Missy Comley
Beattie
What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater
Website of
the Weekend
Ratfink Raunchfest
October 13,
2006
Jorge Mariscal
PowerPoint
Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos
Stephen Philion
The
Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke
John Blair
Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre
Col. Dan Smith
Oil, Atoms and War
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War
Stephen Fleischman
Journalism Then and Now
Charles Perroud
The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims
Anne E. Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality
Website of the Day
Underwater Nuke Test
October 12,
2006
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Plan for a Military Strike on Iran
Norman Solomon
The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq
M. Shahid Alam
On Colonialism and Colleagues
Paul Craig
Roberts
Can We Call It Genocide Now?
Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik
Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor
Seize the Moment?
Carl Gelderloos
Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence
War
Charles Sullivan
Assassins of Truth
William S. Lind
Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War?
CP News Service
The South Turns Against the War
Website of
the Day
There's a Riot Goin' On
October 11,
2006
John Feffer
Pyongyang
1, Bush 0
Dave Lindorff
A Killing Occupation
Jackson Katz
Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings"
Misses Central Issue
April Howard / Ben Dangl
The Tin War in Bolivia
Michael Carmichael
World War W
Ken Couesbouc
The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror
Gregory Afghani
Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America
Alexander Cockburn
600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's
Cheerleader, C. Hitchens
Website of
the Day
Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen
October 10,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lost
Wars and a Lost Economy
Robert Robideau
The
Myth Keepers of Columbus
Joshua Frank
The
Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties
Dave Lindorff
Free the Press Free Linda Greenhouse
Dave Zirin
Brother of the Fist
Heather Gray
Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa
James Knotwell
Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms
Missy Beattie
The Return of James Baker, III
Mike Whitney
Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster
David Rosen
Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex
in America
Website of the Day
Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By
October 9. 2006
Robert Fisk
The
Age of Terror
Norman Solomon
Welcome to the Nuclear Club
Ron Jacobs
The
Boom Heard Around the World
Gideon Levy
The Mystery of America
Walter Brasch
Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values
Mickey Z.
Who Killed Michael Moore?
John Holt
Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist?
Lucinda Marshall
Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer
Saul Landau
Post-Castro
Cuba
Website of the Day
War, Inc.
October 7 /
8, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Wargasms
and Orgasms
Peter Kwong
The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism
Ralph Nader
Revolt of the Generals
Mark Donham
What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me
Dave Lindorff
Philly's Police Snoops
Peter Bosshard
World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits
& Political Corruption
Ron Jacobs
Evil Hour in Colombia
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America
Fred Gardner
Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill
David Green
The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon
Jim B.
Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics?
Missy Beattie
Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss
Michael Donnelly
Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive
Jackson Thoreau
Enter Newt
Jon Hung
Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National
Origin
CounterPunch
News Service
Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia
Tom D'Antoni
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Reagan Gone Wild
October 6, 2006
Alison Weir
Just
Another Mother Murdered
Tiffany Ten
Eyck / Mark Brenner
Made
in (DeUnionized) America
Corporate Crime Reporter
Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business:
Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry
Juan Antonio
Montecino
Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America
Walden Bello
A Siamese Tragedy
Christopher
Brauchli
Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush
Brynne Keith-Jennings
Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections
Jonathan Cook
The Struggle for Palestine's Soul
Website of the Day
Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland
October 5, 2006
John Walsh
Turn
the Page
Carol Norris
The
Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist
on the Hysteria Over Foley
Paul Craig Roberts
Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election?
Ricardo Alarcón
The
Truth About the Embargo of Cuba
James Abourezk
Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next?
Nicola Nasser
Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat?
Kirkpatrick Sale
Breaking Away: the First North American Secessionist Conference
Uri Avnery
Peace
with Syria: Lunch in Damascus
Website of the Day
More Naughty GOP Messages
October 4, 2006
Elizabeth Terzakis
The
Walls That Racism Built: Blood Revenge, the Death Penalty and
Kevin Cooper
Paul Wolf
The
Mushy Rebellion: Pakistan Under Musharraf
Sean Penn
The
Arrogant, the Misguided and the Cowards
Dave Lindorff
Outrage as Misdirection: The Real Scandal isn't Foley
Diane Farsetta
For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan
Sharon Smith
Democrats:
Yes to War, No to Pedophilia
Felice Pace
Revoking 1776
Sara Roy
The Economy of Gaza
Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn: the Video Interview (Part Two)
October 3, 2006
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Compassionate
Conservative Pedophiles
Greg Moses
The Infallible Empire: Junking Habeas Corpus
Stan Cox
Real Bad ID: a National Driver's License and the Fading Right
of Anonymity
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How Empires Die
Evelyn Pringle
Big Pharma Takes a Hit: Alaska's Supreme Court Outlaws Forced
Drugging
Fred Wilhelms
SoundExchange and Unpaid Music Artists: Help Us Find These Musicians
and Get Them Paid
Michael Abelman
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food: the Risks of Convenience and
Consolidation
Gary Leupp
The Foley Follies
Website of the Day
Bush and Blair: Endless Love
October 2,
2006
Eric Hazan
Roadmap
to Nowhere: an Interview with Tanya Reinhart on Israel/Palestine
Since 2003
Mike Whitney
Bloodbath on 60 Minutes: Court
Stenographer Finally Comes Clean
Norman Solomon
American Narcissism and Iraq
Assaf Kfoury
Meeting Nasrallah
Missy Beattie
The Meaning of "ummmm": Speaker Hasert and the Over-Friendly
Congressman
Arthur Neslen
Lie Less in Gaza
Paula J. Caplan
How
the Supreme Court Mangled My Research
Website of the Day
Predator Drones Target Bechtel
Sept. 30 /
0ct. 1, 2006
Weekend Edition
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
New Face of Class War
Marjorie Cohn
Rounding Up US Citizens: a Consitutional Shredding
Ben Tripp
Deviant Conservative Males: an Analysis
Ron Jacobs
A Dismal and Chaotic Place: Iraq According to Patrick Cockburn
Ralph Nader
Torturer-in-Chief
Mike Whitney
Iraq: The Breaking Point
Christopher Reed
It Pays to Raise a Ruckus
Seth Sandronsky
The Housing Bust: Excess Investment and Its Discontents
Fred Gardner
The Chancellor's Wife
Mokhiber /
Weissman
Hewlett Packard and the Erosion of Privacy
Michael Dickinson
My Escape Attempt from Prison Transfer: Extract from a Diary
in Turkish Police Custody
Alan Gregory
Fake Green: Top 10 Ways Politicians Pretend to be Environmentalists
Poets' Basement
Gardner, Landau, Lindorff, Davies,& Buknatski
September 29,
2006
Bruce Jackson
Chavez's
Reading, Bush's Reading
Michael J.
Smith
The
Lobby Debate Does Manhattan
Emira Woods
Oil Trip: Record Profits for Exxon, Deprivation for Africa
William S.
Lind
The Sanctuary Illusion: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as Theme
Parks for 4GW
David Swanson
Mommy, What's Waterboarding?
Jonathan Cook
Bad
Faith and the Destruction of Palestine
Website of the Day
Jesus: the Recruitment Tapes
September 28, 2006
Sen. Russ Feingold
The
Flaws in the Military Commissions Act
Ron Jacobs
The
Generals, the Democrats and Iraq: One Policy, Two Parties
Mokhiber /
Weissman
Scenes from Laura's Book Festival: Elmo Will Not Save You
Lee Sustar
A Left Challenge to Lula
Robert Jensen
Finding My Way Back to Church--and Getting Kicked Out
John Chuckman
America Has Just Lost Two More Wars
Evelyn Pringle
Inside America's Nursing Homes: a Hidden Tragedy of Neglect and
Abuse
Nicola Nasser
Bush and Islam: Words vs. Deeds
Uri Avnery
Political
Corruption in Israel
Website of the Day
Art Against the Empire
September 27, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
A
Final Explosion Looms in Mosul
Camilo Mejia
Blowback From Iraq: Giving Terrorism a Reason to Exist
Pat Williams
Tax Burdens and Cheaters in the Rockies: Send Those IRS Mercenaries
in Search of Montana's Land Barons and Oil Drillers
Ben Terrall
Failing Haiti: Another Bungled UN Mission
Ridgeway /
Ng
Paul Weyrich Explaines His Opposition to the Patriot Act: a Short
Film
Joe Allen
Where are the Mass Protests?
Andrew Wimmer
Don't Disappear Into a Black Hole
Franklin C. Spinney
Rumsfeld's AutoCarterization: Skullduggery in the Pentagon's
Budget
Website of
the Day
Model Nukes: the Photo Contest
September 26, 2006
Hani Shukrallah
The
American Mind: When Historical Analysis is Reduced to Whim
William Blum
If It's Election Season, It Must Be Time for a Terror Alert
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Torturing the Obvious
Barbara Becnel
Witness to an Execution: a Slow and Very Painful Death
Paul Rockwell
Judicial Complicity in US War Crimes: the Watada Case
Dave Lindorff
Bush and Iran: Going to War to Save His Own Ass?
Rich Gibson
Lessons from the Detroit Teachers' Strike
Anthony Papa
The Danger of Meth Registries: "Have a Cold? Prove It, Then
Sign Here"
Nate Mezmer
New Orleans is Back ... Without Blacks: Monday Night Football
at the Superdome
Uri Avnery
Mohammed's
Sword
Website of the Day
Only YOU Can Stop the Sale of Public Lands to Mining, Timber
and Real Estate Corporations
September 25, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Most Dangerous Place in the World: a Journey to Iraq's "Taliban
Republic"
Jonathan Cook
Human Rights Watch: Still Missing the Point on Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Did
Maria Cantwell's Campaign Try to Buy Off Aaron Dixon?
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is
the Bush Administration Itching to Nuke Iran?
Robert Jensen
Defending Chavez on FoxNews
Dave Lindorff
Horowitz on Campus: This Mouth for Hire
Norman Solomon
Media Tall Tales for Next War
Dr. Charles
Jonkel
Save a Grizzly, Visit a Library: "People like the Croc Hunter
are Worse Than the Most Bloodthirsty Slob Hunter
Michael Dickinson
"The King's New Clothes:" a Play Written in a Turkish
Jail
Alexander Cockburn
Flying
Saucers and the Decline of the Left
Website of
the Day
Great Bear Foundation
September 23
/ 24, 2006
Weekend Edition
Jonathan Cook
How
Israel is Engineering the "Clash of Civilizations"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Star Wars Goes Online ... Crashes
Dr. Anon
A Doctor's Life in Baghdad
Tom Barry
Oil and Political Opportunism
Carl G. Estabrook
The Darfur Smokescreen
Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Two Presidents
Todd Chretien
The Axis of Lesser Evilism
Dr. Charles
Jonkel
From Grizzly Man to the Croc Hunter: the Global Media and the
Death of Bears
Debbie Nathan
I Was Disappeared By Salon
Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Struggles Against Invisibility
Fred Wilhelms
The Money Belongs to the Artists Who Created the Music
Seth Sandronsky
The Cruel Economics of Health Care in America
Ralph Nader
Mavericks at Work
Rev. William
Alberts
"Specks" and "Logs" and 9/11
Jon Van Camp
Who is Hezbollah?
Heather Gray
Conservatives and Technology
David Vest
Jerry Lightfoot, RIP
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listenting to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau / Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Meet
Me In The Morning: C. Wonderland & J. Lightfoot
Video of the Weekend
Is It a Bird? A Missile? Or, Just Perhaps, a Friggin' Plane?
September 22,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Republic
of Fear: Torture in Bush's Iraq, Worse Than Under Saddam
Michael Donnelly
It's
the Manipulated Economy, Stupid
Ramzy Baroud
The Next Palestinian Struggle
Evo Morales
"We Need Partners, Not Bosses": Address to the United
Nations
Stanley Howard
Torture and Justice in Chicago
Sarah Leah
Whitson
Hezbollah's Rockets and Civilian Casualties: a Reply to Jonathan
Cook
JoAnn Wypijewski
Conservations
at Ground Zero
Website of the Day
Cockburn in Atlanta: the Video Interview
September 21, 2006
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad
"No
Nation Should Have Superiority Over Others:" UN Address
Justin E. H.
Smith
Ending
the Death Penalty: Outline of an Abolitionist Program
Rick Kuhn
Australian Government Steps Up Attacks on Muslims: "I Certainly
Don't Want That Type of People in Australia"
Mike Roselle
Ed
Wiley's Long March: the Elementary School vs. the Strip Mine
Amira Hass
In the Name of Security: What Israeli Police Files Reveal About
the Occupation of Palestine
Deborah Rich
From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein: the Consumption of Gene-Engineeered
Foods
Mickey Z.
10 Reasons Cars Suck
Saul Landau
Terrorism at Sheridan Circle
Website of
the Day
Stop
the Decapitation of Mountains
September 20, 2006
Sharon Smith
Elections, Detentions and Deportations
Christopher
Reed
Goodbye
Koizumi, Hello Abe
John Ross
Mexico:
Does AMLO Have a Future?
Joshua Frank
A Wasted Campaign: How Jonathan Tasini Helped Hillary Clinton
and Distracted the Antiwar Movement
Arthur Neslen
The Clenched Fist of the Phoenix: What Made Israel Burn Lebanon,
Again?
Norman Solomon
The Hollow Promise of Digital Technology
Michael Carmichael
The Vatican's Tyrant
Evelyn Pringle
The Merck Vioxx Litigation: a Scorecard
Hugo Chavez
Rise Up Against the Empire: Address to the United Nations
Website of the Day
Before You
Enlist: Watch This Video
September 19, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
Deadly
Harvest: Lebanese Fields Sown with Israeli Cluster Bombs
Jeff Leys
Economic
Warfare: Iraq and the IMF
Brian M. Downing
War,
Taxes and Democracy
Col. Dan Smith
Dispelling
Brutality
Liaquat Ali
Khan
Presidential Incitements: Did Bush's Speech Violate Geneva Conventions
on Genocide?
Ron Jacobs
Just Sign on the Dotted Line: Iraqi Oil and Production Sharing
Agreements
Nik Barry-Shaw
/ Yves Engler
Canada in Haiti: Torture, Murder and Complicity
Lucinda Marshall
Air Paranoia: the Great Toothpaste and Hair Gel Scare
Saul Landau
The Pinochet Syndicate
Photo of the Day
Hold That Bridge
Website of
the Day
Scenarios for an Iranian War
September 18, 2006
Carl Boggs
Crimes of Empire
Uri Avnery
Peace
Panic
Mike Stark / Jim Bullington
Ann Richards, the Original Texacutioner
Joshua Frank
Corporate E. Coli
John Murphy
The Price of Free Speech
Ramzy Baroud
Murdoch Almighty
Dave Lindorff
On Constitution Day
Bill Quigley
Showing Conviction at Echo 9
Website of the Day
Tutorial: How to Hack a Diebold Voting Machine
Weekend
Edition
October 27 / 29, 2006
The Wages of Whistleblowing
Why
Bunny Greenhouse Sits in a Corner
By SHERWOOD ROSS
B unnatine Greenhouse sits in a cubicle
in a far corner of an office in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers(USACE)
headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., where, she says, "I
am treated like a non-person." Months crawl by yet her immediate
supervisor just can't seem to find the time to meet with her
to discuss a work assignment. The taxpayers of the United States
of America pay her salary, but, oddly, no demands are made of
her.
That's a sad plight for a dynamic woman executive who is the
cover girl of the July/August issue of "Fraud Magazine."
She's not written up for being on the wrong side of the law,
only on the wrong side of the Bush White House, now a law unto
itself. "Fraud" is published by the Association of
Certified Fraud Examiners and Ms. Greenhouse is the recipient
of the association's coveted 2006 Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award.
She's been showered with honors and the subject of laudatory
press. In another America in another time, an Administration
might well have been proud of her.
Instead, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has trashed the American
Dream of this African-American woman who rose by her own bootstraps
from poverty in Rayville, La., to become the highest U.S. contracting
civilian in USACE. Hers was the responsibility for passing on
$23-billion in contracts annually. A personnel file stuffed with
gold star evaluations attests to her zealous guardianship of
the public's money.
So why is the woman everyone calls "Bunny" made to
sit in a corner, punished like a spoiled child? As she told "Fraud"
editor Dick Carozza, it's over her refusal to sign off on billions
of dollars worth of no-bid, no-compete contracts that are enriching
Halliburton Corp., the government contractor previously headed
by Vice President Richard Cheney.
In the run-up to the Iraq invasion, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg,
Brown & Root(KBR) was named sole source contractor for the
Restore Oil Contract, a contingency plan to douse any oil well
fires that might break out. Greenhouse discovered there were
other bidders qualified to do the job besides KBR.
KBR officials showed up at a USACE planning session on the award
when none of their competitors were allowed in the door. After
KBR presented its planning update, the session continued over
other budget projections that could clearly give KBR insider
knowledge of future Iraq campaign operations. Greenhouse wanted
KBR out of the room. It's a conflict of interest to have a prospective
award recipient involved in the planning stages for missions
not yet officially announced, she said.
Greenhouse's worst fears were realized when KBR, in an action
mocking the competitive bidding process, got a no-bid, five-year
award when a one-year contract would have sufficed in an "emergency."
Greenhouse penned her reservations directly on the contract documents.
Otherwise, she said, "there would have been a major risk
the five-year strategy never would have been revisited, and no
follow-up on limited competition would have been instituted as
promised to the American public."
Under the original contract Greenhouse was asked to sign, even
if Halliburton fouled up, it couldn't be dumped. After she cried
foul, she was demoted from her top contracts' oversight job in
the Senior Executive Service to a mere program manager.
It should be noted, before the Halliburton rip-off, Greenhouse
single-handedly wrought a revolution in the Defense Base Act
insurance law that saved the Pentagon $20-million in its first
six months of operation. Over time, her action may save taxpayers
hundreds of millions spent on insurance premiums to cover military
contractors working abroad.
Looking back, Greenhouse says, "I was never accused of having
engaged in any act of impropriety. I was never called on the
carpet to defend my actions or inactions for any business judgment
I made during the contracting process."
Three Congressional Democrats wrote Rumsfeld asking if it wasn't
a fact Greenhouse's demotion was retaliatory. The Defense boss,
so eager to bring justice to the people of Iraq, did not deign
to respond about injustice in his own office. Now, Greenhouse
says, every action toward her is designed to inflict as much
humiliation as possible.
Greenhouse told "Fraud" she is proud to be called a
whistle-blower. (She's got a plaque from the Giraffe Society
for people who stick their necks out to show for it.) She defines
this as one who "exposes government and corporate misconduct,
violations of the law, threats to the public safety, or actions
that violate the law." And she concludes with words Mr.
Rumsfeld might underline: "Integrity in government is
not an option: it is an imperative." Being a true American,
she plans to sue.
Absent the honest oversight of bunny Greenhouse, Iraq has become
what one official who served there called "a free-fraud
zone." Billions, not millions of dollars, likely
have been stolen from both the Iraqi and American peoples.
In the words of Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.): "The largest
single recipient of Development Fund for Iraq funds was Halliburton.
The company vastly overcharged to import gasoline into Iraq and
to provide other oil-related services. These overcharges, which
exceed $200-million, were billed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But U.S. officials arranged for over 80% of them to be paid out
of the DFI."
And this undoubtedly explains why Bunny Greenhouse sits in a
corner: it's to keep her out of the way. Come to think of it,
if contracts are rigged to shut out Halliburton's competitors,
can you imagine how the Bush White House rigs contracts to sell
Iraq's oil?
The Greenhouse affair reminds me of the old Chaplin comedy set
in Nazi Germany when a man who being set upon by the Gestapo
yells he is going to call the police. It's just as hilarious
for Bunny Greenhouse to expect legal contract regulations to
be observed by a Pentagon waging an illegal war of aggression.
The motivation of the totalitarian state is, after all, greed:
greed first, greed last, greed always, and nothing less than
greed.
Sherwood Ross writes for newspapers and magazines. Reach
him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com .
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